Pope Francis reaffirms crackdown on U.S. nuns

What a surprise. Stay strong, sisters.
The Vatican said in a statement Monday that Francis had reaffirmed the doctrinal evaluation and criticism of U.S. nuns made last year by the Holy See under his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI. The assessment accused the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an organization that represents most U.S. female Catholic orders, of promoting "radical feminist themes" and ignoring the Vatican's hard line on same-sex marriage and abortion.
At the time, the Vatican dispatched an archbishop to rewrite the group's statutes and set up reeducation programs to bring nuns back into line, alleging that leaders of U.S. orders had challenged the church's teachings on women's ordination and ministry to homosexuals.
The move was denounced by Pat Farrell, then the head of the organization, as creating "pain and scandal." Protest vigils were held outside churches, and a petition attacking the Vatican's decision attracted 50,000 signatures.
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious represents about 57,000 sisters, or 80% of U.S. nuns.

Just before taking flight, Sister Bertrille would say "Oh God I wanna know why!! Why Lord, I wish I could understand! I just wanna hit something! I wanna hit it hard!"

Sally%20Field

Francis=big disaster for the Vatican.

[quote]the Vatican dispatched an archbishop to rewrite the group's statutes and set up reeducation programs to bring nuns back into line
How utterly fucking creepy.

Their decision to respond to the sex abuse scandal with a Bernard Law-driven inquisition of nuns would have been the last straw for me had I not left years ago.
Check out this asshole priest who actually blames the bishops' rape-enabling on birth control!

One the one hand, I agree with you, R5.
On the other, I like that they're raising hell from within the organization and giving these fossils a hard time. I'd do away with the church altogether if I could, but the truth is, the Catholic church isn't going out of business tomorrow, or next year, or within the next ten years, and it's refreshing to see some real dissent from within.

I find these nuns awesome - they are like Christians are supposed to be. Francine au contraire is an actual Philistine

I don't know, I think the ship "Fix the Catholic Church" has sailed. You can't make a rotten apple edible again.

The people that will bring real change have to stay r5.
Its kind of like those people who says "I'll leave the US if so-and-so is elected!". How do you expect change if you don't stay and fight? You can't do it from the outside.

It is just so disheartening. I left the Catholic Church years ago, but was pleased with Francis and hoped that the Church was moving in a new, better direction. Guess no.

The hierarchy are self-aggrandizing scum, but the Church has the infrastructure to enable the Sisters to help the poor and needy on a lot of fronts. They couldn't do the same work on their own, lacking Church funds. That and the Body and Blood of Christ are probably why they stay, R5.

And this is new news???????????????

r6 = Log Cabinette

Get%20out%20of%20where%20you%27re%20not%20wanted

You can't do it from the inside either. What they should do is start a rival church for lapsed/questioning catholics.
the issue with challenging the catholic church is that the kind of people who buy into religion are walled themselves off from anything challenging. they have their faith, no matter what, and it will overpower almost anything. if you're afraid you'll go to a fiery hell for having sex outside of marriage, what are the chances you'll throw in with a renegade offshoot? the church knows this and counts on it.

R11 if a bunch of nuns wanted to start a non-religious organization to help the poor, they could find funds.
And you don't build Vatican City and amass billions by giving money away, silly. The poor will be saved in heaven as long as they have as many children as possible and eat fish on fridays.

So the reality is that Francis is a lying, phony sack of shit who cares no more for the poor than the GOP or Obama. If there is a god he loves nuns like Sr. Simone from Network who spend their lives doing the work of Jesus, trying to help the poor and he will probably send Francis straight to hell for being such a phony and trying to get the good sisters to stop doing the work of Jesus. He didn't have to pretend to care about the poor and give false hope. He could have just said and done nothing and not pull that foot washing bullshit.
He's just another liar like Obama.
Heaven help the poor in this world. So few care.

Real, thriving religious communities don't belong to the LCRW. The more traditional orders are doing rather well with vocations.

So the 80% of sisters who belong to the LCRW aren't "real" sisters, R17? What's a snooty tradcat doing on Datalounge?
What brought you over here from Fr. Z's blog? Let me guess, you're a priest.

Obama has no place in this discussion r16. If you want to rant about him start a thread or bump the thread about his sagging poll numbers don't peddle that bullshit here. A religious figure has a moral obligation to help anyone downtrodden that a politician does not have, although it would be wonderful if they felt they did.

The nuns got a little far out there in some of their theology, at least some of them, sorta freaky wild feminist stuff. So, this is understandable.

Any website link to send the nuns a voice of support?

Here ya go R21. It wonderful that you want to do that. I'm sure it will be very appreciated. They and Sister Simone are also on Twitter at @sr_simone or @NETWORKLobby

Francis had better not think that a false equality of treatment on the left and right will solve his problems. He had to continue with the attack - uh, excuse me - investigation because the Church could not to a 180 on the subject without shaking things up. But he'd better quietly let it dribble out or he's going to destroy the sect whose direction he's trying to correct.
As a Jesuit he plays the long game. He's much smarter than the insufferably cloistered Ratzinger. And he's less an ideologue (except for his focus on "the poor" as a counter to leftist Catholicism in Latin America, which is now a nearly dead issue) the hypocritical and corrupt Wojtyla. But he also could forget the simple fact that he has lost Europe, and with continued attacks on American sisters and nuns he could complete the loss of the USA.
R20 is a detestable and dishonest fool. American women religious orders are not "out there," "freaky," or "wildly feminist." They are well-educated, professional women who are absolutely committed to honest, consistent action.
Do NOT attack the one part of American Catholicism that is free of the frightening emotionalism and heartless rigidity of what is passing for today's Church.

He is not smarter than Ratzinger. In fact, he is dumb compared to Ratzinger.
And he is very much the ideologue or didn't you notice a) the ostentatious effort to seem poor when he isn't; and b) use of church property for political ends in Argentina.

I have a feeling that for R16, all roads lead to Obama.

R24, anyone who could navigate the Argentinian political scene (and no, he wasn't perfect at it) while holding the faithful together AND playing his cards well enough to be elected pope is indeed smarter than Ratzinger. Ratzinger spent his entire career coddled in ivory and velvet, and his rigors were of the "make the doctrines fit and make the Church kow-tow" type. That doesn't take intelligence as much as deluded detachment. Yes, he bided his time with certain abuse issues, and then pounced when he was in the position to do it. But that was more a legalistic closing-up of the gaps in policy than anything.
And I don't defend Bertoglio - I just say that there may be some mitigation of the attack on American women religious in the long run. After all, they are not in the same league as the Marxist Latin American priests. But we'll see.
But perhaps my research and reading of the situation is too much evidence-based for your tastes, since you just plop in "dumb compared to Ratzinger" as an unfounded claim.

R26, displaying a disgusting foot fetish in public does not a genius make. You are claiming genius because a) he's a jesuit - a ridiculous prejudice that wasn't true 500 years ago let alone now; and b) survival in Argentina, where the president openly called him a "something out of the middle ages." Sounds to me like you've got too much invested emotionally in this unhistorical view of things.